brown: what kind of energy? >> maybe there's a "there's nothing left to lose" as a kind of freedom as well. people are going out to plays. they're still going out and doing things, but, you know with less money. but there's an urgency. poetry meetings are very well attended. literary events are packed. >> brown: why do you think that is? >> well, it's inexpensive, inexpensive entertainment. ( laughs ) but i think people want to be together. they want to be talking to people. >> brown: the crisis around here, she says, rarely makes it into her poetry in an explicit way. but she did have one direct hit for us, a playful work-in- progress called "austerity measures." >> i love the term "austerity measures." it sounds so poetic. >> brown: even though it's so real, nitty-gritty in what's happening here? >> yes, i love the idea of "measures" as, you know, verse. it was prompted by a headline that i read somewhere, which was "greece downgraded deeper into junk," the greek bonds. and it scanned nicely, and i just wanted